1. Field
The present disclosure generally relates to surface treatment methods and equipment, and deals more particularly with automated rover device for treating surfaces of a large part such as a composite laminate stiffener.
2. Background
Surfaces of relatively large parts sometimes need to be treated or prepared prior to a subsequent production operation. For example, certain surfaces of composite laminate stiffeners such as stringers need to be sanded prior to the application of materials for detecting barely visible impact damage (BVID). The sanding process is carried out manually by multiple technicians who hand sand the entire length of the stringer. The hand sanding is both labor-intensive and time-consuming, and must be carried out in a downdraft booth in order to carry away dust generated by the sanding process. Moreover, the use of hand labor to perform the sanding introduces the possibility of variations in the amount of material that is removed from different sections of a stringer, as well as variations from part-to-part.